Michigan Aerospace Corporation, an advanced engineering and products company, today announced that it was awarded a $1.5 million grant under the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Measurement Science and Engineering Research Grants Program, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Michigan Aerospace will develop and deploy a multi-wavelength Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) system that will measure properties of aerosols critical for understanding climate change, atmospheric chemistry, and air quality. This system will also measure aerosol optical depth, backscatter, depolarization, molecular temperature, molecular density, and wind velocity along the laser propagation direction. The NIST system will take advantage of Michigan Aerospace’s technological advancements that permit the separation of molecular and aerosol scattering, allowing better measurements of atmospheric aerosols and transmittance.

Congressman John D. Dingell of Michigan commented on the award: “I am pleased to see that Michigan Aerospace’s outstanding work has been recognized. The company is on the forefront of LIDAR development and clearly others see just how good that work is. This is the kind of federal investment that will help Michigan retain and attract highly skilled workers and great minds in the 21st century. I applaud the decision by NIST.”

Also commenting on the award, CEO Peter Tchoryk said that “the new LIDAR capabilities provided by this program will advance air quality and climate-change related measurements and also accelerate commercialization of our atmospheric measurement systems for wind energy, aircraft, airports, weather forecasting, and defense applications. Our technology is important to a number of critical applications and we want to be ready to supply them in production level quantities.”

Out of over 1,300 proposals received by NIST, only 27 received grants under this competitive program.

MAC is the premier company in the United States for the development of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and related optical systems for atmospheric measurement and holds patents that increase the performance and efficiency of these instruments to unprecedented levels. These capabilities have resulted in hardened systems with the size, weight, and power characteristics that enable operation on demanding aircraft, spacecraft, ground and marine platforms. The company is organized along core business areas that are managed as Business Units. These include Atmospheric LIDAR Systems to measure atmospheric parameters and constituents from the ground, aircraft, and space, enhancing the accuracy of weather forecasts, aiding weather-dependent military operations, and improving the performance of aircraft (military and civilian) and weapon systems; Optical Remote/In-Situ Automated Detection (Opti-READ) for both remote sensing and in-situ applications, aerodynamic testing, micro-fluidics, and measurement of spectral signatures and cross-sections of biological simulants and agents; Data Exploitation to solve complex problems in data mining, 2-D and 3-D image processing, pattern recognition, and machine learning; and Mechanical Systems for autonomous vehicles operating in space, terrestrial, and marine environments. The company also provides flight qualification services and rapid prototyping in its Engineering Services division. The Products Division offers optical and mechanical systems and components. Michigan Aerospace’s spinoff company OptoAtmospherics LLC (www.OptoAtmospherics.com) is commercializing MAC’s atmospheric LIDAR technology for the wind energy industry.